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NVIDIA issues ConnectorGate damage control statement

by Scott Bicheno on 16 July 2008, 09:17

Tags: NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA)

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qaodf

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Just notebooks, honest

The only thing investors hate more than bad news is bad news coupled with uncertainty. However that’s exactly what happened when NVIDIA announced a one-time charge of between $150 million and $200 million from weak die/packaging material used in some previous generation GPU and MCP products.

The absence of specifics regarding which GPU and MCP (chipset) products were affected made everyone fear the worst and contributed to the kicking NVIDIA’s shares took subsequently.

In a bid to clear the situation up a tad, NVIDIA told us the following: Firstly, it says the issue is limited to just a few notebook chips and that NVIDIA hasn’t seen, nor expects to see this issue arise in any NVIDIA based desktops.

Secondly it insists that only a very small percentage of notebook chips are likely to be affected and that the likelihood is a product of environmental, usage and configuration factors.

Lastly, it made this generic we’re-on-the-case statement: “NVIDIA’s highest priority is to ensure complete satisfaction and delight for all of our customers. We fully stand behind our products and are cooperating with our partners to resolve the recently announced notebook field failure issue.”

Its statement about desktops would appear to be to address the issue raised by HEXUS.channel last week, that some partners suspect desktops will be affected too. This is a clear statement from NVIDIA that the issue won’t arise in desktops and is a welcome piece of unequivocal clarification. (cough!)



HEXUS Forums :: 5 Comments

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Doesn't sound like they're providing any information or clarity at all.

“the likelihood is a product of environmental, usage and configuration factors” - how has the envionmental, usage and configuration of laptops changed so significantly in the last few months that it's suddenly breaking chips?
I think they're saying: the problem is restricted to notebooks and the matter of which notebooks will be affected is influenced by those factors.

Agreed, there are still a lot of unanswered questions, but it was nice to have at least one matter - that of desktops - addressed directly.
Well the way they're addressing it isn't very re-assuring. If they're saying that it's “a product of environmental, usage and configuration factors” then of course it's going to be different on a desktop because they share none of those factors with a laptop.

That doesn't tell me whether I've got a defective chip or not that might or might not have reduced lifespan as a result.
Agreed, we'll keep digging…
So what they're basically saying is “we don't know/want you to know which chips have been affected, only which series, and we're still not going to tell you, and so we can't/won't address the situation by recalling affected systems, so cross your fingers and hope that when it dies, it does so within warranty. We hope it's outside of it.”